The best laptops for college students: Learning digitally has never been easier

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If you’re headed off to college soon, you’re almost certainly going to need a laptop. Many classes have mandatory online components now. And besides, it’s a lot easier to read typed notes instead of trying to decipher your handwriting — trust me on this. In fact, some colleges even require students to own a laptop these days, so you might as well invest in a good one, right? With that in mind, here’s what you need to consider while shopping for a college laptop:

First off, you need to remember that heavy laptops can be a deal breaker in college. If you plan on walking to and from all of your classes, you don’t want a whopping five-pound notebook swinging from your shoulder. Smaller, lighter models are likely a better fit living on campus. Lighter is usually better, but it’s not always in the cards.

Next, consider battery life. If you’re going to be gone all day long, you don’t want to worry about running out of power half-way through. Being tethered to a wall completely defeats the point of owning a laptop in the first place, right? Before you pull the trigger, make sure your laptop will be able to keep up with your busy schedule.

Lastly, keep in mind how much you’re willing to spend and what your priorities are. If you’re studying video production you need to invest in a powerful machine despite the expense. If you’re an English major, you can likely get away with a much smaller budget. Know what your college career is going to demand ahead of time, and shop accordingly. Now, let’s look at a selection of laptops suited for the college lifestyle.

MacBook Air

For general-purpose tasks like word processing, email, and web browsing, the MacBook Air is the gold standard. Available in both 11-inch and 13-inch models, the Air is a thin and powerful laptop that has drastically influenced the Ultrabook concept that Intel has so successfully marketed.

With flash storage, a dynamically-clocked Intel Core i5/i7 processor, integrated Intel HD Graphics 6000, and all-day battery life in less than a three pound package, it’s easy to see why the MacBook Air is the best-selling Apple laptop. It’s frustrating that we still don’t have a model with a Retina display, but the value proposition here is still much stronger than Apple’s regular MacBook line.

MacBook Pro with Retina Display

The MacBook Pro is a very different machine than its smaller brother. As the “Pro” label implies, this series of laptops is for people in need of substantial horsepower. Made in 13-inch and 15-inch variants, the MacBook Pro is designed from the ground up to empower people working in creative fields. With its excellent high-resolution Retina display, up to 1TB of flash storage, up to a quad-core 2.8GHz Intel Core i7 CPU, and eight-to-ten hours of battery life, this laptop is a perfect fit for anything from video production to programming.

Ranging from 3.48 to 4.46 pounds, this is a bit heftier than the MacBook Air, but that sacrifice is well worth it if your field of study needs that added horsepower. If you’re mostly just writing papers and surfing the web, this probably isn’t the best fit for you.

Dell XPS 12 Ultrabook Touch

Tablets and laptops both have their uses in a college environment, and this slick model from Dell gives you the best of both worlds. This is a 12.5-inch laptop, but it benefits from a novel “flip-hinge” that quickly transforms the device into a touchscreen tablet. With 4GB of RAM, a 128GB solid state drive, a 1080p display, a lightweight body, and over eight hours of battery life, this ultrabook gives college students exactly what they need to get work done while remaining flexible enough to use anywhere.

Lenovo ThinkPad X250

If you’re looking for an affordable and utilitarian laptop, check out this Thinkpad from Lenovo. You can grab yourself a low-spec model with a dual-core Intel Core i3 CPU, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB 7200RPM hard drive, a 12.5-inch display, and a pair of batteries for just over 750 bucks. Even better, the stock model weighs in at just 2.88 pounds!

Of course, you can upgrade to an Intel Core i7 CPU, a 512GB solid state drive, and 1080p display, but those changes dramatically raise the asking price and potentially increase the overall weight. The choice is yours, though, so customize as you see fit.

Note: If you’re worried about the SuperFish vulnerability, you can rest easy. ThinkPads were not impacted by SuperFish at all, so you can purchase this model with confidence.

12-Inch ASUS Chromebook

Of course, not everyone can afford to buy high-end laptops for college. But fear not, you can still get the job done without spending a lot of cash. Take this 12-inch Chromebook from ASUS for example. For just $260, you get an 11.6-inch display, a dual-core 2.16GHz Intel Celeron CPU, 4GB of RAM, a 32GB solid state drive, Bluetooth 4.0, and 802.11b/g/n/ac WiFi support. Better yet, it only weighs 2.5 pounds, and offers up to 11 hours of battery life.

It’s certainly not the most powerful or versatile laptop on this list, but the incredibly low asking price makes up for its shortcomings. If you’re on a very tight budget for college, and you don’t need to run software like AutoCAD or Photoshop, this is absolutely the laptop you should get.

The old college try

Regardless of your budget, there’s something here to fit your needs. I know that money can be really tight when you’re a full-time student, but it’s absolutely worth the investment. Keeping your computer with you in class and at home means all of your notes and assignments are in one place, and that will make a world of difference when finals roll around.

Tagged In

Why wouldn’t the Surfaces make the list. It’s by far the most ideal college companion and is cheaper than most of the laptops on the list.

standard

I imagine a physical keyboard and mouse are something of a ‘must have’ for someone hoping to do some work.

Jerry

What about the keyboard cover? Isn’t that virtually the same as the Dell ultra book touch in this article?

My housemate has the 1st gen Surface Pro and I’d describe it more a laptop than a tablet. It’s replaced his desktop use and at times he’s used the usb port to hook up his keyboard and mouse and used the external monitor at his desk.

Heading back to uni myself next year and contemplating the 3rd gen on release, but I doubt it’ll replace my iPad.

meddle0ne

The type cover is a keyboard, and the surface has Bluetooth so it can be paired with a Bluetooth mouse. That’s a much better option than a usb dongle set up. It also comes loaded with MS Office for free, so that is an expense you can subtract. After subtracting the cost of Office and buying a cover and mouse. You’re looking at around $350-$450 for an ultra-portable, instant on, laptop that you can play games from the store when you’re board.

standard

Hard to recommend a laptop when the only options are an overpriced apple or something with windows 8 on it.

Jexpat

Or a Dell.

Puleese.

CPPCrispy

I have had several Dells and they are still running. Some of the other ones (Toshiba, HP, and Acer) have broken on me to a point that they are unrepairable. I know some people have had issues with Dell but, for me, they have been the most reliable.

Harry_Wild

Most students in a 4 year college are using Apple products. Either the Air or Retina Pro. Depends on if it is an Ivy League or a public school.

WillyThePooh

A lot of time, it depends who pay the bill.

Alan Mazer

Actually, this isn’t true. The latest figures I can find say that Apple has about 1/3 of the laptops in college, 1/6 of the desktops. It’s certainly significant, but Apple’s share is nowhere near 50 %.

Aijaz Hussain

Parents are under tremendous financial burden due to variety of lap tops and even a middle class family student wishes to buy Hi-Fi. Another issue is “what is shown on media & what is posted on net, nudity, vulgarity, ill faiths” one who fears from Allah to stand before Him to answer about his deeds he did in this world IS REALLY WORRIED…Is there any alternate solution to get same education but in safe mode.

Digital learning has never been easier because its availability along with other prerequisites to maintain it. Above mentioned guidelines with the genres showed would be helpful for the students to carry the laptop as well as study in class room. Online class then will be easy for the student plus teachers. Such custom writing reviews help us a lot. Thanks a lot for sharing this useful article.

Zepid

Chromebooks and Macbooks as suggestions for school, along with a 12″ convertible.

I guess if by school you mean sitting in the local coffee shop sucking up daddy’s money then yeah, these are great choices. If you want to be productive in school you’ll need a 15.6″ Windows/Linux laptop with no-nonsense to distract you like a touchscreen or a useless OS only driven to check facebag (OSX/Chromebook).

I’d suggest the Dell Inspiron 5000/3000 line of laptops in your price range (great warranty service and accidental coverage) or the HP Envy 15t if you want something flashier but cheaper. The Lenovo Z50 is also a great inexpensive line. Whatever you get be sure to check deal sites like slickdeals or dealzon to get the best price.

School is about learning and preparing you for adulthood, not screwing around.

Real Name

couldn’t agree more. i wouldn’t take any of these computers to school.

for the price of the macbook air or the macbook pro the microsoft surface 3 and pro 3 is pound for pound more suitable for school. with microsoft onenote and the surface pen you can draw tables, sketches, diagrams, math formula as you take notes… if course material is provided in PDF, you can mark up the PDF directly with the surface pen… try that with a macbook.

WTF?! “First off, you need to remember that heavy laptops can be a deal breaker in college. If you plan on walking to and from all of your classes, you don’t want a whopping five-pound notebook swinging from your shoulder.”

No wonder we have so many weak and wimpy people in America. If a college kid in the prime of his life can’t lift five-pound notebook. Wow, yet somehow they can lift the fifty pounds of extra body fat they have?!

Kids should all have robust laptops that are functional. This means two hard drives. Then come the extras.

This article reads more like a paid advertisement.

Techngro

Yeah. When I was in college, my bag routinely weighed about 70 lbs. It hurt my back like hell, but you know what, I didn’t die.

Ivor O’Connor

Well mine never weighed 70. I’ve tried backpacking with 70 lb packs and that is more than I can comfortably handle. With 70 lbs it is no longer about the trip but about when I can set the pack down. I suppose there are the Elon Musks of the world who can haul around everything they own in a backpack, sleep on the floor of their friends houses, shower at the Y, eat with only a dollar a day, and put themselves through college while becoming rich. And then there are the other types of students who need laptops that weigh less than five-pounds!

Techngro

I actually used a Mountainsmith as my everyday college backpack. I had to travel an hour and a half each way to college on the train, so I had to take everything I would need for class and studying. I actually didn’t have a laptop until the second half of my junior year. It was all books. I’m a pretty big guy and I was young and strong so like I said, it hurt, but it didn’t kill me.

Now if I tried to carry a 70 lb backpack today, I would never make it up the subway stairs. :)

Jeremy Garcia

When I was going to school, I had a 13mi bike ride, and I was lugging around my 15.6″ Core 2 gaming laptop that weighted nearly 6 lbs. When I switched to an 11″ netbook that weighed just over 3lbs, the difference was night and day, and it did shave time off my commute. People are lazy, but that weight does have a noticeable impact, granted it’s probably not as extreme as my personal experience. Ever since, I can’t own use a laptop over 4lbs in weight. We’re in the 2010’s with 22mm fab tech w/ lithium polymer batteries; if you can’t fit a functional laptop in under 4lbs with hardware running cooler and faster than ever before, then you’re doing something seriously wrong. My gaming laptop with an i7, Maxwell 860, and 1080p matte screen which is just barely over 4lb and still gets 5 hour battery life. That’s a lot more function than most people need.

Ivor O’Connor

Three-pound difference made the trip quicker and was like light-and-day?

Arc

First of all, what laptops are best for college is heavily dependent upon the major. That being said, the vast, vast, vast majority of businesses, governments, and other enterprises use Windows, and students need to get used to using it sooner rather than later. This means that most recommendations should be for Windows laptops. Or, you need to add in the price of buying Parallels or VMware on top of what you’re paying for the Macs, because they’re going to need it.

And if they’re an IT, science, or engineering major, they’ll probably need a discrete GPU on top of a Windows installation that works outside of a virtual machine in order to get the most performance possible.

Secondly, you need more than a 13″ display if you’re going to do anything productive in college. It’s hard enough doing lots of research using databases and only having one monitor, but it becomes even more of a pain as that single display gets smaller. Now, having multiple desktops on the Mac helps a lot here, but 13″ is still too small. A 15″ Mac should be the primary recommendation on the Mac side.

Bart

No one wants to lug a charger around with them so battery life is always the most important thing for students, not power and performance. Afterall, any computer can run microsoft office and email. I suggest something like the Asus EeeBook X205 which gets 12 hours of batter life and costs only $285.

Shreyas Rakeshi

I am going to college with a dell inspiron 15 5000 series (5547) it has 4 Gb of ram and 1 tb hard drive with an intel i5 processor i would like to know if it is good enough for engineering or do I need to buy another laptop

I’m in an engineering school and they require me to have a decent laptop that matches their requirements. I personally use a 13 inchinch macbook pro from 2011 just because I’ve bought it at that time. It it is pretty handy and useful but at the endend of the day your bag feels way too heavy. I’d recommend an ultrabook. The cost is worth what’s it’s designed for, pretty might, much powerful, horrible price, but that’s a investment for all your college years if stuff are being taken care of. I’m also a huge fan of paper and pen actually. It turns out to be pretty useful from time to time.

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